GARTH ROBERT GRIEDER

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GARTH ROBERT GRIEDER

May 13, 1935 - May 23, 2026

"The Liquidator"

Garth Robert Grieder passed away peacefully on May 23, 2026, surrounded by family and friends.

Born in 1935 to Paul and Mary Grieder, Garth spent his earliest years on a farm in Carmen, Manitoba, where he fondly remembered milking cows and churning butter. At age three, he was bucked in the nose by a horse. His version of the story was that he thought "the back end was the front," an incident he maintained led to a lifelong impairment to his sense of smell, though it never diminished his appreciation for a good home-cooked meal.

Garth was a born entrepreneur and tireless worker. After his family moved to St. Vital in 1940, he began working at age 14, delivering for a drug store while also maintaining a paper route. During the historic 1950 flood, Garth was out delivering papers and would often say, "I went out to deliver papers in the morning and couldn't go back home." St. Vital was so flooded that the family travelled by canoe to reach the grocery store.

After completing Grade 10 at Glenlawn Collegiate, Garth decided he had learned what he intended to from the education system and entered the workforce full time at age 16. Even before that, he had already started his first business, a vegetable stand while still in school. The stand even sold Pepsi, which was a hot commodity at the time, much to the detriment of his younger brother Brian, who had been recruited to help and was one day struck by the Pepsi truck while biking to Garth's vegetable stand.

Garth was always working and always thinking up new business ideas.

His first long-term position was with Lowe Brothers Paint beginning in 1955. By day he sold paint, and after work, he arranged painting jobs for customers on the side. By age 20, he had begun hiring family and friends to help complete projects.

One favourite story involved a job painting twenty wooden louvers on a house. Garth had hired his friend Ray Hellofs to help. Working at his trademark pace, Garth was finishing his nineteenth louver before realizing Ray was still working on his first. Years later, the family learned from an insider that while Garth's speed was exceptional, perfection may not always have accompanied it.

His entrepreneurial instincts extended beyond painting. At one point, he even manufactured his own automotive repair filler and sold it to local autobody shops.

Garth married his first love, Carole, in 1958. Together they raised two sons, Gord and Barry. They shared 24 happy years together, traveling around the world and building a business, before Carole's tragic passing in 1982.

Garth found his true calling in 1965 after a conversation during a baseball game with a friend who worked as Claims Manager at Reimer Express. Through that discussion, Garth realized he could buy distressed freight and salvaged product and sell it for a profit. He began selling product from the trunk of his Chevy Caprice before renting the basement of a building on Erin Street.

When registering a business name, his longtime lawyer Neil McKay learned Garth's first choice, Erin Distributors, was unavailable. Faced with choosing another name, Garth simply looked out the window at his Chevy Caprice and suggested "Caprice Distributors."

Neil doubted General Motors could possibly have left the name unregistered. To everyone's surprise, they had. Caprice Distributors was born, in 1966.

Operating from its first location at 932 Erin Street, Caprice Distributors became a Manitoba institution. Freight claims, bankruptcy stock, insurance claims, and close-outs. If there was inventory to liquidate, chances are Garth found it and brought those deals to Winnipeg.

From Eaton's Wholesale to casket manufacturers, leather jacket companies, lumber yards, and pool table manufacturers, Caprice handled it all. Their motto was simple: "It's Like Christmas Every Day!" At its height, Caprice operated as many as eleven locations, extending as far as Dauphin, Boissevain, and Swan River.

In 1985, Garth founded G&L Sales Ltd. alongside business partner and lifelong friend Gord Lowry, who had started Lowry's Manufacturing in the basement of Caprice in 1969. Today, G&L Liquidation Warehouse continues on the foundation built by Garth and Gord.

Garth was loved by everyone he dealt with. He was easy-going, hardworking, kind, and as honest a person you could ever meet. The legacy of his honesty follows the company he built to this day.

Following Carole's passing, Garth met his second wife, Abbie. They married in 1983 and welcomed a son together, Garth Jr. They built a life together in their dream home in Tuxedo, where they shared more than thirty years of memories.

Outside work, Garth loved golf. Beginning in 1951 at Windsor Golf Course in St. Vital, he later became a member at Niakwa Golf Course before eventually joining St. Charles Country Club in 1984, where he remained for more than thirty years and recorded two hole-in-ones.

He also loved horse racing. Garth owned several dozen horses over the past 50 years, which he raced at Assiniboia Downs and collected his fair share of winner's circle photographs.

He also enjoyed travelling to Las Vegas with family and friends, making many trips over the past 50 years.

When Garth's health began declining in 2022, his wife Abbie devoted herself to his care, helping ensure he made the very most of his final years. She spent hours with him every single day and brought him home each weekend to family and friends. Garth could not have been blessed with a better companion.

Garth is survived by his wife Abbie; sons Gord (Kim), Barry (Suzy), and Garth Jr. (Cali); grandchildren Victoria, Brandon, Bradley, Anna, and James; brother Brian (Judy), and Fred; along with his many nieces, nephews, extended family, and friends.

He was predeceased by his first wife Carole; sisters Millie and Freda; and brother Ernie.

Special thanks to the Simkin Centre and its wonderful staff for the exceptional care and compassion that helped make Garth's final year so special.

Garth lived an extraordinary life.

He built two iconic businesses that have served Manitoba for over sixty years, created opportunity, worked relentlessly, and cared deeply for the people around him. His family could not have been prouder to call him husband, father, brother, uncle, grandpa, and friend.

You could not meet a kinder or more generous man.

He will be deeply missed.

A celebration of life will be held in the near future, with details to be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of your choice or simply honour Garth's memory through an act of kindness.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on May 30, 2026